Welcome to the RIB Joint. A blog discussing science issues with an emphasis on health physics and agnotology.
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Saturday, September 1, 2012

Skepticism vs. Denialism

With Dr. Richard Milne of Edinburgh University in a talk from last year. The beginning applies to all the science deniers (climate science, health physics, medicine, etc.). At about 19:30, he starts going into the cliimate science.

He highlights how the deniers already know what their conclusion has to be, so they just keep plopping in excuses in order to avoid the best conclusion which represents all the facts.

And then, when the evidence is completely stacked against the deniers, they flip "the conspiracy card"!

{Health physicists are either part of the nuclear industry conspiracy (as imagined by some with an anti-nuclear bias) or part of some secret cabal that has superpowers that can keep the multi-billion dollar nuclear power industry in its grips (as imagined by some with a pro-nuclear bias).}

At the end Dr. Milne discusses error bars. Since we can't run many experiments with different planets or run the Earth's history over again, error bars are largely irrelevant. Our best estimate is the estimate itself and we have no way of determining if the true value is actually anything different. So, let's get on with it....

P.S. I'll have whatever he's drinking if it can boost my energy level to his!